Green Technology

We hear a lot about buying locally grown food.  The "costs" of buying products from across the country or world are huge:  fuel to freeze and / or refrigerate, fuel to transport and the resulting carbon impact. 

To get  better idea of this impact READ ON:

FLAVOR -

• "... grown locally is fresher and dramatically more flavorful than ... far away and shipped long distances. ...is harvested at the height of ripeness, and often arrives at the market within 24 hours of being picked."
• "... from non-local sources may travel in the back of a truck for 7 days or more, and then is stored in a warehouse for many months."

ENVIRONMENT -

• "According to the Worldwatch Institute, in the United States, food now travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to table, as much as 25 percent farther than two decades ago. ...today, some 817 million tons of food are shipped around the planet ... up fourfold from ... 1961."
• "Eating locally helps reduce ... pollution created by transporting food ... Food transportation is now among the biggest and fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. ..."
• ... lettuce, grown in the Salinas Valley of California and shipped nearly 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) to Washington, DC, requires about 36 times as much fossil fuel energy in transport as it provides in food energy when it arrives. ... to London (and California lettuce does get shipped to the United Kingdom), the ratio ... jumps to 127."

COMMUNITY -

• "Buying local food ... can help keep small scale farms from disappearing, simultaneously investing in their own community and helping to sustain the tradition of local farmers and artisans."
• "A study by the New Economics Foundation in London found that every £10 spent at a local food business is worth £25 for the local area, compared with just £14 when the same amount is spent in a supermarket. No ... increases occur when people spend money on imported foods.
• "... Buying from local growers helps support farming practices that nourish and replenish the region’s soil rather than stripping it of nutrients and pumping it full of chemicals."

To learn more go to eatlocalchallenge.org     Link 

Via:  Bon Appetit Management Company  Link